The Electoral Commission (EC) has revealed that it has detected that about 60,000 registered voters got duplicate voter identification numbers during the last mass registration exercise.
This anomaly, the Commission says is across about 110 districts.
It said the problem was generated by the biometric (BVD) kits during the mass registration process and was detected by the system itself when all the data was put together at the national level.
The Director of Elections at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe who made this known said the system itself has subsequently generated new voter ID numbers for the about 60,000 registered voters to correct the anomaly and new cards have been printed.
He said the anomaly is not something that is new and that it is historical problem with the process as there were similar challenge in 2012 and 2016.
“In 2012, I think that in Central Tongu or so, all the people who registered in that particular district, their ID numbers were replaced. It affected Weija, a lot of them. These are issues that normally occur, the system will detect it at the data centre and the new cards are printed and replaced,” he said.
Dr Quaicoe made this known in a television interview on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme monitored by Graphic Online on Thursday night [September 24, 2020].
“Nothing has changed, these are normal things and the political parties are aware except that it depends on how they behave when they are either in power or in opposition… when they are in power it is different ball game”, Dr Quaicoe said.
He explained that the EC was in the process of giving out the new ID cards with the new ID numbers to the affected registered voters and that the EC has the house address and telephone numbers of the affected voters.
Dr Serbour, however said everybody who has a voter ID card will vote.
He gave this assurance when the host of the programme, Paul Adom Otchere asked what happens if some of the affected persons are unable to collect their new ID cards with the new numbers before the voting day.
